With a lineup featuring the Fugees, Cypress Hill, Ziggy Marley, A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, and Spearhead, Smokin’ Grooves debuted throughout North America in 1996, appearing in cities like Columbus, Ohio; Park City, Utah; and St. Paul, Minnesota—none of which were known for having any kind of hip-hop scene in those days. Perry Farrell’s alterna-topia Lollapalooza had spent the first half of the decade popularizing the summertime concert package tour for a new generation, but its lineup usually featured few rap acts. Smokin’ Grooves was the first amphitheater tour where nearly all the performers were rooted in hip-hop.

Put together by Kevin Morrow of the House of Blues and Cara Lewis, the booking agent who was famously name-checked in Eric B. & Rakim’s 1987 track “Paid in Full,” Smokin’ Grooves aimed to prove hip-hop’s potential as a commercial force in the concert world—and was marketed to show a more positive side of the genre. In the New York Timesreview of the inaugural tour’s New Jersey stop, writer Jon Pareles was sure to note, “Most of the lineup represents an alternative to the sexism and macho violence of best-selling hip-hop.” As future editions went on to include artists like OutKast, Gang Starr, the Roots, Foxy Brown, Public Enemy, and the Pharcyde, that idea was returned to again and again.

Smokin’ Grooves’ initial three-year run ended in 1998, though it returned briefly, in 2002, for a shorter, 15-date trek featuring a solo Lauryn Hill, Jurassic 5, Cee-Lo Green, and Truth Hurts. And now, 16 years later, Smokin’ Grooves is back as a one-day festival organized by Lewis and Goldenvoice, the Southern California-based concert promoters behind Coachella. On June 16, 38 acts will play the sold-out concert aboard the Queen Mary, a historic ocean liner, in Long Beach, California. The lineup includes festival veterans Erykah Badu and the Roots but it’s mostly filled with younger rap and soul groups like Miguel, Smino, and Ravyn Lenae. If all goes according to plan, this latest Smokin’ Grooves reboot could be more than a one-off: Lewis says she hopes it will return to its touring incarnation next year.

To understand the impact of Smokin’ Grooves on hip-hop, and how it reflected the genre’s commercial and cultural growth, we spoke to the artists, road managers, and behind-the-scenes figures who made it happen.

Vintage Smokin’ Grooves posters from the tour’s initial run in the ’90s.

MICHAEL FRANTI [Spearhead]: Back then, hip-hop was known for having notoriously bad shows compared to other styles of music. That wasn’t the truth, but that’s what the prevailing attitude was amongst promoters and fans too, because hip-hop artists weren’t really touring.

CARA LEWIS [longtime booking agent, original Smokin’ Grooves organizer]: At the time, most people considered hip-hop a phase. Urban acts were having a hard time getting booked in large venues. There was confusion among promoters and consumers, and issues with gangster rap.

KEVIN MORROW [former House of Blues executive, original Smokin’ Grooves organizer]: All of these genres start out as the Wild West—whether it’s hip-hop or early rock’n’roll—and Cara was the one who helped morph it into a business. I can’t remember if it was me or her who said, “Hey, we should do something,” but we recognized how this music was going to become a lifestyle. It was more than just music. So we went for it.

CARA LEWIS: The first Smokin’ Grooves tour was created as a response to Lollapalooza, which had a rock-heavy lineup. I wanted to create a tour that could act as a conduit for soul, hip-hop, funk, R&B, and reggae to come together. Kevin understood the change we could create by putting a festival on tour that would combat any fears of this genre of music and play venues with capacities of 12,000-plus. He and House of Blues provided partnership, financial backing, and sponsors to underwrite some of the costs to keep the ticket prices reasonable. We also had an advantage in packaging the tour, as 95 percent of the talent came from within my own roster.

Michael Franti (right) during the first Smokin’ Grooves tour in 1996. Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc.

IMANI [The Pharcyde]: We made a name for ourselves on the second stage [of Lollapalooza in 1994]. It wasn’t because we were famous, it was because the audience wanted to hear this new group. It was a different kind of energy.

BOOTIE BROWN [The Pharcyde]: When we did Smokin’ Grooves in 1997, it was more of a—I don’t want to say introducing us to the black crowd, but it gave us that stamp of approval where we could cross on both sides of the fence. We didn’t just have to play to the alternative, mostly white audiences.

SLIMKID3 [The Pharcyde]: It was good to be among peers.

DJ NU-MARK [Jurassic 5]: We were always being invited on these rock tours that had this hip-hop crossover thing. It didn’t bother us one bit. We understood the demographic. But Smokin’ Grooves was different.

MICHAEL FRANTI: When the tour was first being conceived, it was like, “This is going to be alternative hip-hop.” But everybody who was on the tour was like, “We don’t want to be the alternative to something, we just want to be great music.” But a lot of it was convincing the promoters that this could be a real show and not a DJ up there that the people in the lawn seats wouldn’t be able to see.

GARY BONGIOVANNI [founder of concert trade magazine Pollstar]: People knew the audience was there because you could sell tickets to the shows, but the problems were with actually producing the event. It wasn’t being done with the proper seriousness to be a large business.

KEVIN MORROW: There were earlier hip-hop tours, but they were marred by violence.

GARY BONGIOVANNI: Smokin’ Grooves really was a landmark tour, but not so much because of the artists on the bill, but for the way it was run. At the time, there were a lot of problems with rap tours, and a lot of the mainstream concert promoters didn’t want to have anything to do with them. And a lot of it was self-induced by the artists and their entourages—having fights backstage and all of that kind of stuff. Smokin’ Grooves brought a much more solid perspective: It was not just a mobile party, it was work. You came to the event, and you didn’t come with a gun, you didn’t get into fights. You did your show, and then you went on to the next one.

Cypress Hill’s B-Real performs on the last day of the inaugural Smokin’ Grooves tour in 1996. Photo by Alex Garcia/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images.

MICHAEL FRANTI: The prevailing attitude was that hip-hop couldn’t play in large venues, and hip-hop audiences were too dangerous. There was fear that there would be shootings. So when we started the Smokin’ Grooves tour, they had security that all the artists had to go through backstage.

MICHAEL FRANTI: A lot of artists were having issues with the law, and there had been a few shootings at some concerts, but in my opinion it was overblown. There was a fear of bringing together large black audiences. In the end, Smokin’ Grooves showed promoters that hip-hop was for kids from all different walks of life.

KEVIN MORROW: We wanted to be able to tell the promoters that it was secure in a way that nothing could go wrong. I mean, let’s face it, artists have issues as well. It’s not always just the fans. I walked on a couple of the tour buses and talked to artists. We had those talks. We had to make sure that it was going to work on both sides—with the artists and the audience.

SLIMKID3: It seemed like they put that type of pressure on every rap concert, but they’d never put that pressure on rock dudes. It was only black things. It sucks that things have been that way, and are that way.

ESTEVAN ORIOL [tour manager for Cypress Hill]: The promoters were all scared, and we would reassure them; we were easy to get along with. They were scared of rap and that we were going to smoke weed, and the cops would come and shut us down. But once they met us, we had that professionalism. We could smooth it out and let them know that everything was going to be safe, and everybody was going to make money. Nobody was going to get shot at the show, and the FBI wasn’t going to raid the venue.

MICHAEL FRANTI: The whole tour was peaceful. There was one time when a little fight broke out backstage because a guest of one of the bands had taken a bowl of ice cream without asking, I guess. It was enough to have him thrown out, but that’s the only thing I remember happening in terms of any kind of altercation.

ESTEVAN ORIOL: I would have a meeting with all the security and say, “Hey guys, I know everybody is scared of the rap shows, but don’t worry, our fans smoke weed. They’re more laidback, they’re cool, they’re just having a good time. So whatever you do, don’t choke motherfuckers out.”

Cypress Hill perform “How I Could Just Kill a Man” and “Insane in the Brain” during the 1996 Smokin’ Grooves tour.

CARA LEWIS: Cypress Hill performed every year. They considered it their summer camp. They were the tour’s defining act.

SLIMKID3: B-Real from Cypress is like our big brother. On Smokin’ Grooves, I learned a lot from him. Every time I see him, he gives us another jewel to move forward in our career—as a team, as a band, and as an individual too. He taught us about taking care of your fan base. Basically, it’s about always having your shit together and being able to do this without having an attitude. He let us know that people go through things, but you still have to come together and do this for the people.

CHUCK D: One of the richest experiences of that tour was seeing the commitment and dedication of Cypress Hill to their own fans. That’s what me and B-Real built a friendship on. Cypress Hill came the closest to what Public Enemy had done for years. They would perform at the show and then be out in the audience signing autographs, really being proactive in what the experience between hip-hop fans and artists should’ve been about.

MICHAEL FRANTI: When Smokin’ Grooves started, it was right when “Killing Me Softly” broke, and the Fugees turned into this band that could sell out huge places. It was interesting, because Ziggy [Marley] was closing the show; to the promoters, he was known as the one who could sell tickets. The Fugees were third on the bill, but they had this song that was near the top of the charts for the entire summer. They breathed a lot of wind into the sails, and without that timing, there might not have been another tour to go out like that; had it not been a success, promoters wouldn’t have thought to do it the next year.

CARA LEWIS: We were capturing the exact moment when urban music was beginning its takeover of mainstream radio and MTV.

The Fugees perform their hit “Killing Me Softly” at Smokin’ Grooves in 1996.

CHUCK D: We headlined Smokin’ Grooves in 1998. At that time, we had a legitimate résumé of sheds, areas, and big enough facilities for a tour. Although you had acts that were selling records, they were considered insurance hazards, so they had to get a headliner that was able to be liable for it, as well as responsible for a tour that would start great and end great.

WILL.I.AM [Black Eyed Peas]: It was life-changing. You’re from the projects, you’re poor. You have a dream about doing music. No one believes in you. You start a buzz. You’re playing all up and down California, at all the colleges. And then Cara Lewis becomes your booking agent. And you start dreaming out loud. And then it all comes true. And then you go on tour opening for Public Enemy, Cypress Hill, Busta Rhymes, Gang Starr. It was the best way to grow as a group.

And that’s why Black Eyed Peas have had sustained success. If you just have a big hit out the box, you can’t sustain that. From the bottom to top, from the top to space, that’s what we did. And it was Smokin’ Grooves that showed us how big it potentially could be, and gave us the aspirations and the gall to dream it even bigger—that experience of seeing the world with your heroes. We were just a circus of inner city art, watchin’ culture, being a part of culture. Pulling into Raleigh, North Carolina during a hurricane. Pulling into New Orleans in the humid, hot heat. Pulling into Kansas, like, “Yo, we’re in Kansas bro!” You’re seeing America.

GARY BONGIOVANNI: Smokin’ Grooves also invested in the stage sets and production, it wasn’t just a guy talking into a microphone.

DJ NU-MARK: Way back in the day in the ’80s, I always loved seeing LL Cool J come out of a boombox on stage, and the crowd would go crazy. So, for Smokin’ Grooves, I said, “Let’s come out of gigantic turntable.” So we had this huge Technics 1200 turntable that would open up and then the MCs would come out of it on the first song and kick their lines. I don’t know if it was Andre 3000 or Big Boi, but one of them was yelling at their tour manager, like, “These guys are coming out of a gigantic turntable, and all we’ve got is this backdrop!”

CHUCK D: Wyclef Jean brought out Canibus rapping against a lion. They brought a lion on stage—a living, breathing lion. And Canibus spit verses at the lion. The lion was heavily sedated, but me and B-Real laugh about this all the time. I don’t think anything as bizarre has ever been on a rap stage.

Wyclef and Canibus bring out a damn lion (!) at a Smokin’ Grooves stop in 1998.

DJ NU-MARK: I was really tripping out on Lauryn Hill’s solo set. She had her guitar up there, and I personally enjoyed watching her reveal herself completely without a full entourage, or a drum machine, or a DJ behind her. It was like looking into her soul.

TRUTH HURTS [singer, onetime Dr. Dre protégé]: Prince was my favorite of all time since I was a little girl, and I even dyed my hair purple when I was in high school and made people call me Princess. I heard he was in the audience [in Minneapolis] and I almost lost it. I said, “I gotta go out there and see this man.” Walking up to him, I was like, “Hi, I’ve gotta be your biggest fan. My name is Shari, aka Truth Hurts.” And he looked at me and gave me this whole Prince vibe and said, “OK, I’m here to see Lauryn Hill.” I almost died. But it was amazing just to come face-to-face with him at that moment.

The Fugees at Smokin’ Grooves in 1996, just as their career was starting to explode. Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images.

WILL.I.AM: It may be a bill of a whole bunch of different bands, but when you’re on Smokin’ Grooves, the band is Smokin’ Grooves.

CHUCK D: Because Smokin’ Grooves 1998, as an all-rap tour, was successful, it opened up the gates for [JAY-Z and DMX’s] Hard Knock Life tour and the Up in Smoke tour with Dr. Dre and Eminem. Those tours wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for Smokin’ Grooves.

CARA LEWIS: Like many festivals that created something from nothing for underserved audiences, the acts on the bill became able to carry their own headline tours and were thus too expensive to support the Smokin’ Grooves business model.

KEVIN MORROW: Artists didn’t want to be a part of something where the brand outshined the individual. Why would Lil Wayne want to go out on something if Lil Wayne could sell out the whole thing himself?

CHUCK D: In ’98, our whole thing was that the older groups needed to bring the younger ones around, and that’s why we were proud to be part of it. I think the thing that has knocked hip-hop off the tracks the last 15 years is that the older groups have shunned that responsibility.

GARY BONGIOVANNI: At this point, you see rap and hip-hop at Coachella or any of the mainstream rock festivals. Some years, like this year, it’s really pronounced.

CARA LEWIS: The timing felt right to reintroduce the brand as a one-day festival to set up a 15-city tour in 2019.

ALINA BARAZ [24-year-old singer, performer on Smokin’ Grooves 2018]: I love festivals in general, but this one is the coolest lineup I’ve seen in a minute. It’s so many people I personally listen to. This is my entire Spotify playlist.